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China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has issued a notice to make deployment work in promoting the construction of standard toilets and improving toilet infrastructure in a bid to solve management problems related to toilets during peak travel periods, the ministry announced on Monday. 

According to the ministry’s official WeChat account, in order to consolidate and deepen the achievements of the tourism toilet revolution and continuously improve the management and service level of toilets in the tourism industry, the ministry has made deployment work in five aspects including the comprehensive promotion of standardization of tourist toilets, constant improvement of the construction of tourism toilet infrastructure, effectively strengthening of the innovation management mechanism for tourism toilet, continuous promotion of the digital construction and the efforts to solve the problem of toilet management during peak tourism periods. 

The notice requires to calculate the toilet capacity gaps based on the estimated data of passenger flow, to proactively purchase or rent mobile toilets, and to strengthen the construction of facilities such as tide toilets, gender-neutral toilets and interchangeable toilets based on specific circumstances, according to the notice released by the ministry on June 13. 

The notice also requires to enhance the allocation of toilet facilities at entrances and exits of tourist attractions and popular scenic spots, as well as observation platforms where there is a concentration of visitors. 
 
The notice urges to better address the problems such as insufficient toilet capacity during peak tourism periods and imbalance in toilet supplies for different genders.

According to the notice, it is important to scientifically allocate the proportion of male and female toilets and prioritize the construction of accessible toilets and family restrooms. 

To address the challenges in constructing tourist restrooms in high-altitude, cold, water-deficient, and electricity-deficient areas, the notice urges to strengthen the application of technologies such as micro-flush, waterless flush, biodegradable materials, new materials, and new energy. 

It is important to adhere to the principle of economic practicality and discourage the construction of excessively luxurious restrooms that aim solely to attract attention or pursue extravagant designs. Such practices should be promptly stopped and corrected, the notice said. 

The notice also requires to continue the promotion of the construction of digitalized tourist toilets. 

According to the notice, a national management system of tourism toilets will be used to regularly update and inspect the information of the toilets to ensure the quality of public toilets in tourist attractions. 

Meanwhile, tourists can also scan specified QR codes to comment on the service of the toilets. 

Global Times